UTSA Roadrunners (10-6) at #26 Kansas State Wildcats (15-3)
Games 17-18 ? Tuesday-Wednesday, March 17-18 ? 6:30 p.m./noon
Tointon Family Stadium (2,331) ? Manhattan, Kan.
Probable starting pitching matchups (W-L, ERA. IP, K)
Tuesday, March 17: 9 Casey Selsor, lhp (3-0, 4.72, 13.1, 10) vs. Kyle Hunter, lhp (0-0, 3.72, 9.2, 9)
Wednesday, March 18: 7 Marc Gomez, lhp (1-0, 6.55, 11.0, 12) vs. Ryan Daniel, rhp (1-0, 3.92, 20.2, 13)
Probable UTSA starting lineup (BA, R, HR, RBI, SB)
1. R 14 Tyler Carpenter, rf (.361, 14, 1, 8, 3)
2. S 10 Marshal Davis, ss (.354, 14, 1, 13, 1)
3. R 1 Michael Rockett, cf (.386, 15, 5, 20, 5)
4. R 22 Jose Hernandez, lf (.382, 19, 7, 20, 5)
5. R 13 Aaron Powell, dh (.264, 12, 3, 9, 1)
6. R 5 Ryan Rummel, c (.217, 9, 1, 10, 4)
7. R 29 Matt James, 1b (.300, 7, 0, 4, 0)
8. R 17 Lance Brown, 3b (.254, 14, 1, 7, 2)
9. R 23 Ryan Hutson, 2b (.227, 10, 0, 4, 1)
Leading off:
? The Roadrunners are in the midst of a 10-day, eight-game road trip that already has taken them to Arlington. Future cities include Manhattan, Kan. (two games at Kansas State) and Huntsville (three games at Sam Houston State)
? UTSA is 4-4 away from the Alamo City this season
? Sophomore Tyler Carpenter currently is riding a career-long 17-game hitting streak (dating back to May 23, 2008)
? The Roadrunners are a perfect 6-0 when playing under the lights this spring
? UTSA’s 11-8 victory on Sunday, March 1, at Oral Roberts ended the nation's longest active home winning streak at 25 games
? Senior Michael Rockett went 3-for-5 in that win to push his career total to 251 hits, setting a new program record
? Rockett needs just four at-bats to set another all-time school record
? The Roadrunners are averaging eight runs and 11 hits per game this year
? UTSA picked up its first season-opening win in nine years with their 8-5 victory against San Francisco on Friday, Feb. 20
? The Birds are the consensus preseason favorite to win their third consecutive Southland Conference Regular Season Championship
? UTSA returns 22 letterwinners, 10 pitchers and six position starters from last year's squad that tied a school record with 39 wins
? Two-time defending SLC Coach of the Year Sherman Corbett has led the program to three league titles in the last four years (two regular season/one tournament)
? Rockett and Zach Calhoon are preseason All-Americans
? Four players were named to the conference's preseason teams (Rockett & Calhoon first team/Aaron Powell & Ryan Proudfoot second team)
Series history: The Roadrunners lead, 2-0, after sweeping last year’s two-game set at Wolff Stadium (March 4-5). UTSA won by scores of 5-4 and 9-8.
On the Web: A free audio stream of 54 of UTSA's 55 games will be carried live courtesy of Yahoo! Sports this season. Brian Hernandez will call all the action on Tuesday and Wednesday. Live stats also will be available at no cost for every contest the Roadrunners play this spring on goUTSA.com. Beginning with the March 24 tilt against Texas-Pan American, video streamingwill be available for Rowdy Zone subscribers for 16 selected home gamesat Roadrunner Field (March 27-29 vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi;April 9-11 vs. Northwestern State; April 13 vs. Dallas Baptist; April17-19 vs. Lamar; May 2-3 vs. Texas State; May 14-16 vs. CentralArkansas).
Hit the lights: When the sun has gone down and the light have been turned on, UTSA has been at its best this spring. The Roadrunners are a perfect 6-0 when playing at night this season.
Potent offense: UTSA is averaging eight runs and 11 hits per game this season. More than 39 percent of the squad's safeties have gone for extra bases (42 doubles, 8 triples, 19 home runs) and that has translated to a .497 team slugging percentage. The Roadrunners have scored in double figures in seven contests this spring, all of which have resulted in wins. The Birds also have stolen 24 bases, an average of more than one-and-a-half per contest, and seniors Jose Hernandez and Michael Rockett lead the squad with five apiece, while junior Ryan Rummel is close behind with four.
Comeback kids: Eight of UTSA's 10 victories have come after the Roadrunners have fallen behind in the early innings. The Roadrunners did not trail in their Feb. 21 contest against San Francisco (12-3/second game of doubleheader) and March 1 tilt at Oral Roberts (11-8).
Rockett sets UTSA all-time hits record: Senior All-American Michael Rockett just missed his second cycle in a year in the Birds' 11-8 win at Oral Roberts on March 1, but his 3-for-5 performance vaulted him into first place on the program's career hits chart. The All-America center fielder now has 265 in his four years as a Roadrunner and that mark has surpassed former record holder Jeff Juarez. who recorded 249 from 1996-99. Rockett's name can be found all over the school's all-time lists, as he ranks second in at-bats (759) and doubles (51), third in bating average (.349) and RBIs (172), fourth in runs scored (152) and home runs (28) and fifth in triples (9). The Sugar Land native is hitting a team-best .386 with 15 runs scored, four doubles, one triple, five homers and a squad-leading 20 RBIs this year. He also leads the club with 27 hits and five stolen bases in addition to ranking second in runs, total bases (48), slugging percentage (.686) and on-base average (.436). His career-long 19-game hitting streak (dating back to May 16, 2008) came to an end in Sunday's first game of a doubleheader at UT Arlington.
Heavy-hitting Hernandez: Senior Jose Hernandez arguably has been the team's most consistent hitter this spring. Hernandez is leading the Roadrunners in runs scored (19), homers (7), RBIs (20), stolen bases (5), walks (11), hit by pitches (5), on-base percentage (.514), total bases (51) and slugging percentage (.927/10th NCAA) in addition to ranking second in doubles (7). The Anaheim Hills, Calif., native was a member of the College Baseball Foundation's National All-Star Lineup for games played during the week of March 2-8 and also was tabbed the Southland Conference Hitter of the Week after going 9-for-15 (.600) with seven runs, a pair of doubles, a triple, four homers and 11 RBIs. His top performance that week was a three-homer, six-RBI effort that included a two-run walk-off shot with two down in the ninth on March 6 against Southeastern Louisiana. He is coming off a junior year that saw him hit .319 with nine doubles, a homer and 24 RBIs in 43 games (41 starts).
Leadoff production: After batting seventh in the first two games of the season, sophomore Tyler Carpenter has found a home atop the Roadrunners' lineup. Carpenter ? who is hitting .361 with 14 runs scored, a squad-best eight doubles, a homer, eight RBIs and three stolen bases ? brings a career-long 17-game hitting streak (dating back to May 23, 2008) into this week's series in the Little Apple. The Missouri City native is hitting .378 (28-for-74) during the streak. He is reaching base at a .432 clip to go along with a .514 slugging percentage and ranks second on the squad with 26 hits.
He Is Marshal: You would never know that senior Marshal Davis missed the entire 2008 campaign based on how he has begun his final year as a Roadrunner. Davis is hitting .354 with 14 runs, three doubles, a team-leading three triples (t-No. 8 NCAA), his first career home run (hit on March 10 vs. Illinois State) and 13 RBIs.
Alka-Selsor: Freshman left-hander Casey Selsor has found a niche in the Roadrunners bullpen during the early part of his first campaign in navy blue and orange. The San Antonio native will make the first start of his collegiate career on Tuesday night at Kansas State. He leads the pitching staff with a perfect 3-0 record and has recorded a 4.72 ERA in 13.1 relief innings this spring. Selsor has appeared in a half dozen games and struck out 10 hitters. A 37th-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals following his final season at Reagan High School, he was a 2008 all-state honoree and the San Antonio 5A Player of the Year after posting a 13-2 record with two saves and a 2.25 ERA. He also struck out 124 in 96.1 innings of work.
Preseason All-Americans: Senior center fielder Michael Rockett and junior closer Zach Calhoon both earned preseason All-America honors from multiple organizations. Rockett, who became the program's first-ever second-team honoree last spring, was selected to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's first team and Collegiate Baseball's third team. Calhoon, meanwhile, earned third-team accolades from both the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball.
National Player of the Year candidate: Preseason All-American Michael Rockett has been named to the Brooks Wallace and NCBWA's Dick Howser Award watch lists, both of which honor the nation's top player. He is coming off a junior campaign that saw him hit .360 with a UTSA-record 25 doubles, five triples, 10 home runs and 68 RBIs. He also scored 60 runs, stole nine bases and threw out seven runners at the plate from center field.
Stopper of the Year candidate: Junior closer Zach Calhoon was one of 40 relief pitchers named to the NCBWA's Stopper of the Year watch list last month. The Spring native saved two of UTSA’s three wins against San Francisco in the opening weekend of the year. The right-hander set down the Dons in order and fanned two in the season-opening 8-5 victory and came back two days later with another two-strikeout performance in finishing off the Roadrunners’ 6-3 triumph. The pair of saves pushed his UTSA career record to 21. Calhoon also owns a 2-1 ledger and has fanned nine in 9.1 frames this season. He saved an SLC-best 13 games a year ago, a mark that ranked eighth nationally (NCAA's third-best returning total), and also posted a 4-1 record with a 1.54 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 41 innings of work (26 appearances).
Duo among nation's best: On pace to break nearly every hitting record in school annals, senior center fielder Michael Rockett entered the 2009 season ranked among returning hitters nationally in career hits (238/third), RBIs (152/third), total bases (370/third) and doubles (47/sixth). Meanwhile, junior closer Zach Calhoon's UTSA career-record 19 saves stood fourth among the country's returnees entering the spring.
Preseason polls: UTSA was the consensus choice to win its third consecutive Southland Conference Regular Season Championship, as voted by the league's coaches and sports information directors. The Roadrunners picked up five first-place votes in both polls and outdistanced second-place Lamar by nine points (111-102) in the SIDs Poll. In the coaches poll, they were ahead of Sam Houston State and Texas State by four tallies (110-106).
Getting ready for the grind: UTSA is slated to play 55 games this season and those contests will take place over an 85-day span. In a rare feat for a southern-based program, the Roadrunners will play 30 of their tilts away from the Alamo City, which translates to 54.5 percent.
Team captains: Seniors Marshal Davis, Michael Rockett and Kris Ruepke and junior Ryan Rummel will serve as team captains this spring.
